


Cause all I ever wanted...

by blahblahblahcollapse



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Light Angst, M/M, Mistletoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 20:19:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17049899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blahblahblahcollapse/pseuds/blahblahblahcollapse
Summary: “Mistletoe!” She shouts excitedly. “You know what that means!” Steve feels heat lick up his neck and into his cheeks as he looks up to see the little ball of greenery dangling above them.“Oh, Joyce, we don’t…” Steve starts to shake his head, glancing at Billy, who’s equally as flushed.“It’s the law!” Eleven shouts from the living room - which, who the hell taught her that? Steve glares at Mike, who glares right back as if to say “Wasn’t me.” Steve very much doubts that.“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Dustin starts chanting from his spot at the kitchen table, and Max and Lucas quickly join in.“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Joyce and Eleven join in. Hopper shakes his head and shrugs, joins the chant as well.“They’re not gonna shut up til you do it,” Jonathan says, looking up from his book with a grin.





	Cause all I ever wanted...

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the 'verse of my fic 'When You Love Somebody Then You Stay', because I was feelin' it.
> 
> This is part silly fluff, part vent piece.
> 
> This time of year is rough when you're gay and your family's homophobic. But sometimes you get lucky, and you find a new "family" that not only loves and supports you, but celebrates you.
> 
> (title is from the song No One but You by Daniela Andrade)

“Thanks, Mrs. H! We’ll see you in the morning.” Steve calls down the hallway before stepping into the guest room and closing the door behind him. Billy’s already lying on his back on the bed, legs dangling over the edge, shirt unbuttoned like he couldn’t stand another minute of basic decency.

Steve stalks over to the bed, throwing aside the stack of towels Mrs. Henderson had given him, and plants his knees on either side of Billy’s waist, straddling him. The muscles of Billy’s stomach twitch at the icy crawl of Steve’s fingers over his bare skin, but he lets out a little hum of approval.

“Hey,” Steve says, peppering kisses across Billy’s jawline, fingers wrapping around the curls at his neck. Billy hums again, the rumble of it reverberating through his chest, and Steve lifts his head to look at Billy’s face. His eyes are closed, but they open slowly to stare up at Steve, long lashes stuck together with moisture.

“I missed you.” Billy whispers, voice cracking ever so slightly. The words fall like jagged rocks in Steve’s heart. He had been hoping to avoid this whole thing, where they talk about how their day went, had been hoping he could distract Billy away from all that with a blowjob and some much needed cuddles. But there’s no avoiding the tears that trail down Billy’s cheeks as he closes his eyes and turns his head away - guilty as he always is when he lets it slip how he’s really feeling.

“Billy,” Steve doesn’t want to talk about it, but more than that, he doesn’t want Billy to be upset. “Baby…” He moves his hands to cup Billy’s face, pulls it back so that Billy will be looking at him when he opens his eyes, which at the moment are still clamped shut in embarrassment.

“I missed you, too,” Steve whispers, leaning down to kiss just below each of Billy’s eyes. “How was Christmas dinner with your family?” Billy lets out a sigh, shaky with emotion, and reaches his hands up to wrap around Steve’s wrists, thumbs rubbing circles into them.

“It was fine,” Billy says at length, finally opening his eyes to look up at Steve again. “Lucas was there.”

“Oh, that’s…” Steve tries to force a smile, but Billy gives him that look, the one that says ‘Don’t even start that bullshit with me, Harrington.’

“What about your family?” Billy asks, turning his head to give Steve’s palm a kiss.

“Oh, delightful as always.” Steve says sarcastically, hoping Billy won’t ask for more details. Because the last thing Billy needs to hear is how Steve’s mom asked about girlfriends. And when Steve said “Mom, you know I’m with Billy,” she responded with “Oh, that’s just a phase, though. Right?”

Steve was sick of having the same conversation every time he spoke to his mom, but he’d be damned if he ever dropped it and let her continue on in her delusions about what his relationship with Billy actually meant. He’d considered asking Billy to come to Christmas dinner with him, to force them to finally face the facts, but he thought better of it - Billy didn’t deserve to be put in that position. He had his own family bullshit to deal with.

Billy had been hesitant to accept the olive branch Susan extended after his father passed away, but she’d promised him a family, and he wanted to remain a part of Max’s life, if nothing else. So they were both trying hard to make it work.

It hadn’t exactly been a shock when she found out about him and Steve and reacted negatively. But that didn’t mean it hurt any less.

Steve had come to consider the Hargrove house a second home of sorts during the summer following graduation. He hung out with Max on nights when both Billy and Susan had to work, joined them for family movie nights, and sat with Susan on the patio while she knit sweaters for Christmas presents, offering his opinion when she asked how they were coming along. Sure, there were plenty of nights spent at his own house with Billy, hidden away in the privacy that its emptiness granted, but a good chunk of his free time was spent at the Hargrove house. Because despite being somewhat disjointed, they were a family, and Steve craved that more than anything.

That same year, Susan invited Steve over for Christmas Eve when he and Billy came back to Hawkins during Christmas break. She had no idea that he and Billy were a couple at that point, no one did aside from Joyce, Max, and Dustin. It meant a lot to Steve, to be invited because she wanted him there, not just because she felt obligated in some way. He may have teared up when he opened the present she gave him - an astonishingly ugly thing made of bright green and blue yarn, not dissimilar to the one she gave Billy.

They wore those sweaters at “family” dinner the day after Christmas, when they told the whole group that they were, in fact, a couple. The response they got was mixed - Lucas didn’t seem to have an opinion, though Steve suspected that maybe Max had already told him. Eleven just grinned and said she was happy for them, while Mike’s response was a bit less tactful - “it was totally Nancy that made you gay, right?” Nancy turned bright red at that and smacked him on the arm, but she wouldn't look Steve in the eyes for the rest of the night. Jonathan just shrugged and said “that's cool”, and Will didn’t react much, but Steve caught him staring at them in this sort of awestruck way numerous times throughout the night.

Hopper didn’t say anything. He nodded once and went back to eating his food, but later Billy joined him outside for a smoke and Hopper admitted that he didn't get it at all. Billy said he could tell Hopper was trying really hard to be careful, like he knew he could easily say the wrong thing and push Billy away, but he mostly wanted to know that they understood how dangerous it could be for them if the wrong people found out.

All in all, it had gone better than they anticipated.

Steve told his mom over Spring Break, and she made him promise not to tell his dad. He didn’t at first, thinking, or rather hoping, that she was being protective. But then she kept saying things like she expected him to be “over it” and he realized that she just didn’t want to inconvenience her husband with their son’s  _ confusion _ . He told his dad over the summer, and his dad just sighed, shook his head, and refused to discuss it any further.

Billy told Susan the truth about them over the phone a week before that following Thanksgiving, hoping they could spend the holiday together, as a couple, and she told him that Steve would not be welcome in their home anymore.

So they stayed in Chicago for Thanksgiving.

But Christmas couldn’t be avoided. Steve’s entire extended family gathered at the Harrington household for Christmas every year, and there was no way in hell he could get away with skipping out on that. His parents were paying for school, after all. And Max practically begged Billy to come home for Christmas, even got Mrs. Henderson to extend an invitation for them to stay in her guest room during their visit. Not to mention Joyce was hosting another day-after-Christmas party for their makeshift family, and Steve couldn’t say no to her. So here they were.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” Billy whispers against Steve’s palm.

“I know what we can do instead,” Steve says, rolling his hips suggestively against Billy’s.

“Pretty sure that’s the one thing Dustin asked us to not do while under his mother’s roof.” Billy chuckles.

“Jesus,” Steve groans. Dustin had grabbed the phone from his mom after she offered them a place to stay and demanded that “no funny business” would happen in their guest room. Technically, Steve never made any promises.

“C’mon, babe, we wouldn’t want to betray his trust would we?” Billy teases, and Steve can’t even be annoyed because Billy’s smiling for the first time in far too long, and it’s such a relief that Steve thinks he could cry.

He grinds down against Billy’s crotch again instead, dropping his head to mouth at Billy’s neck. Billy moans at that, breathy and high, and Steve’s stomach swoops with excitement.

It’s Christmas, they’re exhausted, and all he wants is to make Billy forget all the bullshit for a while. He’ll be damned if he lets a damn thirteen year old cock-block him.

-

Walking into the Byers’ house feels like coming home. Joyce greets them each with a huge hug, the familiar bickering of the party trickling out into the chilly December air.

“Merry Christmas,” she says, voice syrupy in that tell-tale ‘someone’s been into the egg-nog’ way. “Thanks for coming.”

“Are you kidding? We wouldn’t miss this for anything.” Steve smiles.

“Yeah, thanks for inviting us,” Billy says beside him, hand hovering at the small of Steve’s back briefly and then falling to his side instead.

“Of course!” Joyce nods and steps aside to usher them into the living room. “Presents can go under the tree,” she gestures to the modestly sized tree in the corner. “And Hop’s just finishing up his special hot cocoa in the kitchen. Hint, what makes it special isn’t exactly kid friendly.” She winks and heads into the kitchen. The promise of alcohol seems to kick Billy into gear. He practically tosses his gift under the tree and make a beeline for the kitchen himself, leaving Steve to double check that said present didn’t get too mangled in his frenzy and deposit his own gift.

They all decided to do Secret Santa this year, that way everyone would get a gift and no one felt the need to buy something for everyone. Steve got Lucas, and Billy got Jonathan. It was kind of embarrassing, but Steve had no idea what to get Lucas and ended up recruiting Max to help him. Billy, however, never said a word to Steve about Jonathan’s present. He just came home one day with a bag from a local bookshop and asked Steve where the wrapping paper from last Christmas ended up.

“Hey Steve,” Nancy smiles at Steve as he approaches the coffee table where she and Eleven are playing a game of War.

“Hey Nance,” he smiles back. “Merry Christmas. How’s NYU?”

“It’s great,” she answers, turning her attention back to the game. “How’s Chicago?”

“Windy.” That earns a laugh.

“Ba-Steve, you gotta try this hot cocoa.” Billy gets as close to Steve’s back as he can without actually touching him and holds out a mug in offering.

Steve can’t ignore the minute shift in Nancy’s posture, the way she seems to suddenly be concentrating extra hard on her cards - the contrast in how stiff she’s holding herself compared to Eleven, who is watching him and Billy almost admiringly.

Steve purposefully lets his hand linger on top of Billy’s as he accepts the mug, smiling at his boyfriend reassuringly, and then takes a sip. Joyce was not kidding about it not being kid friendly, if the heat that crawls down the back of his throat is any indication.

“Whoo,” Steve lets out a low whistle as it settles into his gut. “That’s amazing.”

“Told ya,” Billy grins, tapping Steve’s elbow lightly. It’s a small gesture, one they’ve grown accustomed to using, their own version of a peck on the cheek or a squeeze of the hand - innocuous enough that no one’s going to notice it unless they’re looking for it.

Steve follows Billy into the doorway of the kitchen, to finally get a look at the chaos within.

The rest of the party is gathered around the kitchen table, constructing what he’s pretty sure was at one point meant to be a gingerbread house. It more closely resembles a mountain of icing and gumdrops and candy canes now, though. Max seems to be threatening Mike with a spoonful of icing, a thick glob of it stuck to her hair, while Dustin and Lucas argue about something, hands flailing to emphasize whatever points they’re trying to convince the other of. Will is quietly doing his thing, constructing a snowman out of gumdrops coated in enough icing to make them into little balls, and Jonathan is sat on one of the counters, munching on dried icing while reading a book.

Joyce is standing with Hopper at the stove, sneaking more whiskey into her mug when he’s not looking. There’s something almost childlike about it, carefree in a way that Steve’s not sure he’s ever seen Joyce be. It warms his chest - the way her eyes crinkle with laughter when Hopper catches her the third time, the way she playfully smacks his arm when he holds it up too high for her to reach; the way he smiles down at her and shakes his head.

“You have plenty,” he scolds, and she takes a sip as if to test his truthfulness. She’s about to argue but then she notices Steve standing in the doorway, and Billy standing beside him, and flails her arm around for a second before pointing above their heads.

“Mistletoe!” She shouts excitedly. “You know what that means!” Steve feels heat lick up his neck and into his cheeks as he looks up to see the little ball of greenery dangling above them.

“Oh, Joyce, we don’t…” Steve starts to shake his head, glancing at Billy, who’s equally as flushed.

“It’s the law!” Eleven shouts from the living room - which, who the hell taught her that? Steve glares at Mike, who glares right back as if to say “Wasn’t me.” Steve very much doubts that.

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Dustin starts chanting from his spot at the kitchen table, and Max and Lucas quickly join in.

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Joyce and Eleven join in. Hopper shakes his head and shrugs, joins the chant as well.

“They’re not gonna shut up til you do it,” Jonathan says, looking up from his book with a grin.

Steve looks back at Billy, and the look on his face is equal parts embarrassed and terrified. He’s red as a tomato, one of Steve’s favorite looks on his boyfriend.

“Well?” Steve whispers, reaching a hand out to cup Billy’s neck. He doesn’t move any more than that, though, lets his hand rest against the warm skin of Billy’s neck and waits for Billy to go the rest of the way. They don’t make a habit of kissing in front of people, and Billy especially has a difficult time with PDA. The last thing Steve wants to do is push him past his comfort zone.

“It’s ok-” Billy cuts him off with a kiss before the words fully leave his mouth. And Steve’s expecting a peck at most, but he’s pleasantly surprised when Billy’s arms wrap around his waist and he tilts him back a bit, deepening the kiss. Everyone cheers around them, and then Dustin and Lucas start making gagging noises when the kiss goes a bit longer than they all anticipated, but when they part, everyone is smiling and Billy presses his face into the crook of Steve’s neck to hide.

“Now that’s what I call a kiss!” Joyce exclaims with a smile, winking when Steve smiles back at her.

The rest of the night feels lighter somehow, like something has been loosened inside of them and Billy’s not so hesitant to reach for Steve as they’re exchanging gifts around the tree and snacking on cookies by the fireplace. Even Nancy seems to ease up. At one point Steve catches her looking down at Billy’s hand on Steve’s knee and when she looks back up to see him watching her, she offers a smile - small and a bit self-conscious, but genuine.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, let me know! I'm honestly dying for validation right now.
> 
> As always, come say hey on tumblr if you like - blahblahblaharringrove


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